NAME

hosts_options - host access control language extensions

DESCRIPTION

This document describes extensions to the language described in the
hosts_access(5) document.
The extensible language uses the following format:
daemon_list : client_list : option : option ...
The first two fields are described in the hosts_access(5) manual page.
The remainder of the rules is a list of zero or more options. Any ":"
characters within options should be protected with a backslash.
An option is of the form "keyword" or "keyword value". Options are
processed in the specified order. Some options are subjected to
%<letter> substitutions. For the sake of backwards compatibility with
earlier versions, an "=" is permitted between keyword and value.

LOGGING

severity mail.info
severity notice
Change the severity level at which the event will be logged.
Facility names (such as mail) are optional, and are not
supported on systems with older syslog implementations. The
severity option can be used to emphasize or to ignore specific
events.

ACCESSCONTROL

allow
deny Grant (deny) service. These options must appear at the end of a
rule.
The allow and deny keywords make it possible to keep all access control
rules within a single file, for example in the hosts.allow file.
To permit access from specific hosts only:
ALL: .friendly.domain: ALLOW
ALL: ALL: DENY
To permit access from all hosts except a few trouble makers:
ALL: .bad.domain: DENY
ALL: ALL: ALLOW
Notice the leading dot on the domain name patterns.

RUNNINGOTHERCOMMANDS

aclexec shell_command
Execute, in a child process, the specified shell command, after
performing the %<letter> expansions described in the
hosts_access(5) manual page. The command is executed with
stdin, stdout and stderr connected to the null device, so that
it won’t mess up the conversation with the client host. Example:
smtp : ALL : aclexec checkdnsbl %a
executes, in a background child process, the shell command
"checkdnsbl %a" after replacing %a by the address of the remote
host.
The connection will be allowed or refused depending on whether
the command returns a true or false exit status.
spawn shell_command
Execute, in a child process, the specified shell command, after
performing the %<letter> expansions described in the
hosts_access(5) manual page. The command is executed with
stdin, stdout and stderr connected to the null device, so that
it won’t mess up the conversation with the client host. Example:
spawn (/usr/sbin/safe_finger -l @%h | /usr/bin/mail root) &
executes, in a background child process, the shell command
"safe_finger -l @%h | mail root" after replacing %h by the name
or address of the remote host.
The example uses the "safe_finger" command instead of the
regular "finger" command, to limit possible damage from data
sent by the finger server. The "safe_finger" command is part of
the daemon wrapper package; it is a wrapper around the regular
finger command that filters the data sent by the remote host.
twist shell_command
Replace the current process by an instance of the specified
shell command, after performing the %<letter> expansions
described in the hosts_access(5) manual page. Stdin, stdout and
stderr are connected to the client process. This option must
appear at the end of a rule.
To send a customized bounce message to the client instead of
running the real ftp daemon:
in.ftpd : ... : twist /bin/echo 421 Some bounce message
For an alternative way to talk to client processes, see the
banners option below.
To run /some/other/in.telnetd without polluting its command-line
array or its process environment:
in.telnetd : ... : twist PATH=/some/other; exec in.telnetd
Warning: in case of UDP services, do not twist to commands that
use the standard I/O or the read(2)/write(2) routines to
communicate with the client process; UDP requires other I/O
primitives.

NETWORKOPTIONS

keepalive
Causes the server to periodically send a message to the client.
The connection is considered broken when the client does not
respond. The keepalive option can be useful when users turn off
their machine while it is still connected to a server. The
keepalive option is not useful for datagram (UDP) services.
linger number_of_seconds
Specifies how long the kernel will try to deliver not-yet
delivered data after the server process closes a connection.

USERNAMELOOKUP

rfc931 [ timeout_in_seconds ]
Look up the client user name with the RFC 931 (TAP, IDENT, RFC
1413) protocol. This option is silently ignored in case of
services based on transports other than TCP. It requires that
the client system runs an RFC 931 (IDENT, etc.) -compliant
daemon, and may cause noticeable delays with connections from
non-UNIX clients. The timeout period is optional. If no timeout
is specified a compile-time defined default value is taken.

MISCELLANEOUS

banners /some/directory
Look for a file in ‘/some/directory´ with the same name as the
daemon process (for example in.telnetd for the telnet service),
and copy its contents to the client. Newline characters are
replaced by carriage-return newline, and %<letter> sequences are
expanded (see the hosts_access(5) manual page).
The tcp wrappers source code distribution provides a sample
makefile (Banners.Makefile) for convenient banner maintenance.
Warning: banners are supported for connection-oriented (TCP)
network services only.
nice [ number ]
Change the nice value of the process (default 10). Specify a
positive value to spend more CPU resources on other processes.
setenv name value
Place a (name, value) pair into the process environment. The
value is subjected to %<letter> expansions and may contain
whitespace (but leading and trailing blanks are stripped off).
Warning: many network daemons reset their environment before
spawning a login or shell process.
umask 022
Like the umask command that is built into the shell. An umask of
022 prevents the creation of files with group and world write
permission. The umask argument should be an octal number.
user nobody
user nobody.kmem
Assume the privileges of the "nobody" userid (or user "nobody",
group "kmem"). The first form is useful with inetd
implementations that run all services with root privilege. The
second form is useful for services that need special group
privileges only.

DIAGNOSTICS

When a syntax error is found in an access control rule, the error is
reported to the syslog daemon; further options will be ignored, and
service is denied.